Colony

Well ... three is the new number. While my wife was trying to prevent the plant from toppling over in the gusty wind today, I detected a nymph, maybe a few days old, crawling on the outer leafs of the plant.
I observed her behavior for several minutes and was very much reminded of Madam's first adventures. She also would be found frequently sitting on an outer leaf, when she was a nymph. That behavior changed after four weeks or so, when she only visited those regions when it was dark, and was hiding in the thick underbrush of the plant during the day.
Maybe the nymphs are a bit careless and do not know yet how to behave properly. Because if I could spot her, a bird or a dragonfly would have no problems, too.
Anyway, we now have a Mantid colony in our plant ... and a bird's nest, most probably sparrows. It is becoming a freakin' Arche Noah ...

 

Developing

Yesterday, I assumed that Madam was basically finished with her growing process. Tonight, she showed me what my assumption was worth, by shedding her old skin again and displaying some wonderful new wings. I caught her right after the moulting was over, when she was still recuperating from this strenuous activity. She then usually remains motionless on a branch near to the exuvia for quite some time. That is when I took the picture of her and her new set of wings, which she displayed quite nicely. Unfortunately, I had again to shoot through the fly screen on the lower half of the window, and there was absolutely no way I could have reached her better from the outside - too many leafs in the way. So the picture is sub-optimal, but it conveys the message - she has wings now.
What makes me believe that my assumption that she is a female, is still correct, although she now sports wings (which are a preeminent indication of the male sex), is that she developed them only now. Mini-Me has shown developing wings very early in his life, whereas with Madam this is the first time we see that on her at all. My guess is that those wings will stay the size they are now, whereas Mini-Me's wings will grow to a length that will cover the whole aft body.
For female Mantids, the wings are merely decoration, and cannot be used for flying, as with the wings of the male Mantids.
But what a decoration that is - beautiful!

And this is Madam a few hours later, with wings folded away and at a much better spot to  take pictures of her.

Moulting

Today, I noticed a somewhat sunburnt Mantis hanging from one of the branches of the plant. At first, I thought that Mini-Me had changed the color from green to brown, as Madam had done gradually as a nymph, only with her it was from brown to green.
But then, after observing it for a while, I noticed that it did not move - must be an exuvia!
My plan was always, to eventually collect of of those for closer examination, so I fetched some plastic gizmo out of the kitchen (salad grippers??), and a Ziplock bag. Gently, very gently, I pushed away some leafs and some branches and tried to apply the gizmo so that the delicate hull would not ... WOW! It was by no means an exuvia - it was Mini-Me, jumping to the next branch!
So I took my gizmo and my bag and went back inside - what a surprising encounter!
Then, because I have had enough excitement for that evening, I went to Publix for some milk and eggs.
Coming back after twenty minutes or so, I routinely checked back with the plant and saw ... Madam hanging there hed down on a branch, maybe ten inches away from Mini-Me, who was just in the process of shedding the old skin!
So now we finally a couple of things - firstly, that both Mantids knew from each other, because they were clearly in each others field of view. Secondly, that Madam had not eaten Mini-Me yet - a fate we assumed had befallen the poor devil, because we had not seen him for a few days. And finally, Mini-Me was indeed a boy, and Madam was indeed a girl - male Mantids have wings, which Mini-Me clearly showed after he was out of the exuvia, and female Mantids have none, or just very short, unusable wings, and we could not detect wings on Madam so far.
As I stated before, that will be a most interesting summer, having a male and a female Mantis living in the same plant, right before our eyes!
After the whole exuvia shedding, Mini-Me hung just there, head down like a bat, and rested for quite a while. And Madam did not move either. She is about double the size of Mini-Me, but he is growing very fast, and she seems to be finished with that.
He did not loose his brownish color after the moulting, as I expected - the color did obviously not come from the exuvia (which is rather transparent actually), but it was his own skin color. Strangely enough, his legs are the same green color as Madam's (and the the same color as the branches of the plant), so this gives him a somewhat patchy appearance. I am anxious to see, whether this color stays, or whether it changes to a more camouflage like green pattern.

 
This is Madam, hiding in the thick underbrush of the plant. My wife and I illuminated her with two LED-flashlights.

This is Mini-Me, his back still attached to the exuvia. You can clearly see the difference in size of the old skin to his  "new" body. My guess is, that this will be his final size, or maybe he will shed his skin one more time. Since Madam seems to be all grown up now, and male Mantids are usually much smaller than the females, this could be it for both. We will see ...

Two

As reported before, it is not uncommon that we don't spot Madam for days. In spite of her enormous size - about three inches long by now - she is very good in hiding herself from us. The plant is such a jungle, and she has such a perfect camouflage, that if she does not want to be seen, she is not seen.
The day before yesterday, I spotted her climbing up the fly screen on the living room window. Well, not having seen her for a while, I wondered if this was really her. In my memory, she must have been bigger. Wasn't she as big as long as most of the leafs on the plant by now? My memory could be wrong, so I went through the numerous photos I had made in the last month or so. Although no conclusive evidence presented itself, I began to think that maybe we had a second specimen here.
And tonight, this nagging suspicion was confirmed - during our almost ritualistic search of her in the plant, after the kids are in bed, I spotted Madam, and my wife spotted ... a mini-me version of her.
Where in the world did that come from?
We are totally puzzled, because the mini-me is about the size Madam had a month ago, so this specimen must have had hatched about two weeks ago. That would also explain the latest exuvia that I found, which I always thought to be too small for the size Madam is now. At the time, I thought that it maybe had dried up and shrunken significantly. No, turns out that this very probably was the first exuvia of mini-me Mantis.
So, we have a regular Mantid heaven here now.
My hypothesis is, that mini-me Mantis is a male, and that he is in grave danger to be eaten by the much larger female Madam, once he reaches adulthood and tries to have sex with her.
This will be very, very interesting weeks that are before us, to say the least.

This is Madam. Notice her changed eyes - much more articulated than before, and actually brown by now. I had to use flash, which is usually a no-no in nature photography. But it was pitch black outside and this was the only way to get her picture. I found her at her customary spot - she is kind of a creature of habit, having her favorite spot in the plant, so it seems, and going there every night.

And this is mini-me Mantis - shot from inside our living room, through he fly screen of the window. Madam was about fifteen inches to the upper right at this time, and I am not sure if she already knows of the presence of mini-me. Mantids are known to be cannibalistic in certain circumstances, and she would have no problem to catch the much smaller mini-me.

Clockwork

Like clockwork - today, 14 to 15 days after the last time, there is a new exuvia in the plant. So Madam is still growing bigger.

Well, and I couldn't resist - I bought a book about the Praying Mantids. A very scientific book. THE book. Written by nutty professors and weird scientists, with lots and lots of diagrams, tables, and very tiny text. Some pictures are also in there, mostly black and white studies of sudden movements.
It cannot get any more scientific than that:

The Praying Mantids [Hardcover]

Frederick R. Prete (Editor), Harrington Wells (Editor), Patrick H. Wells (Editor), Lawrence E. Hurd (Editor) 

The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1 edition (November 24, 1999)
ISBN-13: 978-0801861741

Tools

Yesterday, we had a very heavy lightning storm here in the Huntsville area. A couple of our sunflowers, one of our pavilions, and some minor plants have not survived the strong winds and torrential rains. The plant where our Mantis lives also took a beating, the top kind of toppled over at a ninety degree angle. My wife was concerned about Madam's safety, but she usually stays in the thickest part of the plant these days, in the middle of the jungle that is formed by the leafs and branches that grow in every direction. So no worries on my side.
And this morning, after we brought the plant back in a somewhat normal position, Madam undertook a little inspection tour. And posed for some close-ups for me in the process.
The picture shows her mouth - a fearsome tool to dismantle her prey. Also, notice the "thorns" on her "fore leg" (they are somewhat out of focus - in that kind of close-up macro photography, the depth of field is measured in fractions of millimeters, and my main focus here was her mouth) - with those, she is holding her prey in a deadly grip while ripping pieces out of them. Good thing we are not on the menu ...

Big

She's become nocturnal. During the day, it is extremely hard to spot her at all, because she usually hides in the thickest part of the plant. Plus, her color has become a perfect match to the plant's color. That is actually a normal process - every time the old exoskeleton is shed, the new one emerges with a better camouflage scheme.
So, yesterday when I was closing the backyard door for the night, I noticed her in the plant. She was crawling around and was acting quite animated. Maybe, when she was a young nymph, she needed all the food she could get her fangs on, so she also hunted during the day. Now, that she's grown big - and man, is she big now - skipping a meal  is probably not  life threatening for her anymore.
Good thing I have a big, sturdy tripod now, and a flashlight, too. Both enabled me to get some photos from her, through the glass of the living room window.
I sincerely hope that the bright flashlight did not disturb her too much, but this was the only way to have enough illumination, even with an ISO setting of 1600.
Today, as soon as it was dark outside, she came out to the same spot again, so I am inclined to believe that this is her behavioral pattern now. The days, when she would enjoy the morning sun on an extended leaf or branch, and when she could be easily found in the outer rims of the plant during the day, are apparently over.

Exuvia, the third

It's like clockwork - every fourteen days, Madam sheds her old exoskeleton, because her growing body needs more space.
Today, I found her latest exuvia, hidden in the thick underbrush of the plant. Very tough to take a good photo of it - everything was in the way.
And then I also saw her again, hiding in the middle of the plant, impossible to reach with my camera.
At least we know now that she is still there and apparently finds enough to eat, so that her growth remains on schedule. Like clockwork ...

Shy

I came back from a seven day long business trip to Germany last night, and found my family in distress - they hadn't seen Madam in four days and everybody was worried about her fate.
Well, it did take me about five minutes of very thorough searching to detect her this morning. she was hiding in the thick inner layers of the plant. Usually, she would take a sunbath in the morning on one of the outer branches, but apparently she had changed her behavior. And her size, too. During my absence, another moulting must have occurred, because what I saw there was a real monster. Her body is not fragile anymore, but very massive and her length must be at least 2 inches by now.
also, her color has become almost indistinguishable from that of the plant - it is extremely hard to spot her when she situates herself in the maze of branches and leafs of the inner plant.
And of course, it is absolutely impossible to take pictures there - too dark, too many obstacles, no clear line of sight.
I just hope that this is just a phase, and that this does not constitute a significant change of habit. Now, that I have all that fancy equipment, and with her growing size, amazing photo opportunities come to mind ...